Produced by Kelly Mulholland
Kelly - upright bass, Estey folding pump (reed) organ, bass, tenor, and soprano recorders, percussion.
Special thanks to Sarah Pirtle and Christy Grecsek for joining me in the video
Lyrics:
I am standing on a rooftop
With two cities down below
And they cannot see each other
But from here I can see both
I see a rapid growing process
Against the hum of daily life,
I see a people, against an empire
My family used to travel
In bands across these hills
Through the highlands and the valleys,
Until the interstates were built
To the indifferent teeth of progress,
Went our entire way of life
We are a people, against an empire
Sometimes i hold my head up
Sometimes I let it fall
Sometimes my little brother
throw stones across a wall
And sometimes the uniforms
Obeying orders open fire
Upon a people, against an empire
I didn’t build machine guns,
I didn’t program drones
I learned my mothers recipes
I looked after my home
And when my brother needed Medecine
And we couldn’t get supplies
It was me that went across the checkpoint
And look just like a movie
That I saw once from the states
The swimming pools, the houses
The parks and the cafes
I thought of home, how we get water
For an hour every night,
As a people, against an empire
Now I’m walking through the border territories, occupied
Past the camps laid out like cities
Past the Coca Cola sign
Past the remnants of the whims
Of what some government decides
For a people, against an empire
Once there was a rooftop
With two cities down below
And they couldn’t see each other
But from up there I could see both
Another relic of my childhood for archaeologists to find
I think I’m ready to be old now and to watch the world go by
But should anybody wonder where my loyalties lie
I am a person. I am a person. I am a person against an empire.